All of us may have heard about Ion Popescu Gopo, and we know he has a certain link regarding film and animation. The author Bogdan Mihăilescu talked about him in last year edition of the festival, mentioning his relevance to this category yet new in that era in Romania.

Gopo was a great graphic artist, animator, movie director, and actor. He was born in Bucharest, Romania, on 1st May 1923 and died on 23rd November 1989. He was a permanent presence in Romanian cinematography and also the founder of the modern Romanian cartoon school. He attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest but never graduated. He also attended an animation course in Moscow, Russia.

Gopo learnt how to animate in Disney style due to his interactions with specialists from Russia who had a similar style. He started to make films similar to those produced by Disney in its beginning era. Later on, he started an anti-Disney rebellion, but it didn’t last long. Gopo’s characters are drawn in a more simplistic way than Disney’s characters.

In 1956, his film A brief history („Scurtă istorie”) saw the light on the great screens, and the following year, 1957, it won the award Palm d’Or for the best short film at the Cannes Film Festival.

 

Fantastic Comedy

The film has two parts: the first where the viewer gets a perspective of the characters about an event that was about to happen, and the second where the event is happening. It is a science-fiction story with few special effects but manages to send the message through the soundtrack and very qualitative editing. Gopo said about his film shouldn’t be seen as an SF film but rather as a comedy.

 

Below you have a deeper analysis of the film made by Mihăilescu:

Moderator: Simona Hupov

Presenter: Bogdan Mihăilescu